Homecoming - Shallow lead push
Nadia Raeburn
We set off from top camp,full of optimism for the day.
Nadias's ankle was sore from the previous trip, so we wanted to take the shortest route
to the cave to minimise stretch on it. With this in mind we set off along the path
which went via fish face.
Arriving at fish face in good time we found another group
that were about to go underground.After a chat, we set off for Homecoming
with our glasses remaining half-full.
Without a GPS we weren't entirely sure how to get there,
but with morale high we were confident of bodging the way.
I had already got lost going from FGH to HC, surely it couldn't happen again.
Fast forward an hour or so we were standing on the side of a sharpsloping wall of a gully.
Looking in two different directions (our tone starting to resemble the
internal monologue of a child who's lost their mum in Asda).
We both said the same thing, 'I remember going this way'. After trialling the two options
we discovered, with sinking morale, that we were both wrong.
My watch produce a nagging beep to signal mid-day;
another pin-prick in the already deflating balloon that was my confidence.
Our plan of action started to fragment;a staring chicken lost on a plane of fine brown gravel.
'It might be this way' I wouldsay 'no, maybe it's this way'.
Feeling a bit spent wedecided to rest. Over some flapjack crumbs we discussed
our plan of action.
Setting off again, our plan A, B and C ready to go.
We had at last cometoterms with our situation.
Bags on we walked around the bunde that had provided shelter for our break, a cairn, two, three,
the familiar path to Homecoming.
With regards to the cave, we swung into the window at the top of Gromit, bolted the
pitch Anthony had startedthe day prior.
It lead into two continuations; one horizontal, one vertically down. We crapped out the horizontal
and left the other labelled as a QMB. Reason being: it's clean washed, and it looks like it will connect to cave already found below.